


Cat burglar

by Arienhod



Series: Plot bunny farm [13]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-18 13:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14853455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arienhod/pseuds/Arienhod
Summary: Felicity adopted the cat to get a companion and friend. She got so much more.





	Cat burglar

It was a spur of a moment decision, getting a cat. A result of feeling lonely in the new apartment, in the new city, and needing a companion. Just someone to share things with, even if that someone couldn't talk back and give advice.

Sure, she could try and befriend her coworkers, but after three months of pretending not to hear them whisper cruel things about her behind her back she gave up that plan. She was an outsider in their little group, and a smart one at that. 

That made her a threat for the already established hierarchy in the IT department.

That was why she happened to be in the park a block away from Queen Consolidated during her lunch break and not in the cafeteria on the 18th floor with everyone else. She felt unwelcome and like she was imposing. It was a feeling that made her question her decision about moving to Starling city and generally accepting Mr. Steel's offer.

She expected a brain trust.

She got High School.

That was when Breadcrumb entered her life and turned it on its head. Not just by his presence but by a rather strange, and perhaps mortifying, little quirk he had.

It all started a few weeks ago.

>>>>>\------------> 

Felicity let the door close behind herself with a click before toeing off her flats with a content sigh. They were new and pinched a little, but she loved them. She only made a few steps into her living room when she noticed something was wrong. Something was missing.

A quick scan around the room told her what was lacking for the first time in weeks. The jiggling of the small bell hanging of Breadcrumb's collar as he got up from whichever piece of furniture he decided was his that day and rushed to greet his mistress, or rather to demand food and chin scratches.

"Breadcrumb? Here kitty, kitty, kitty." Felicity called while simuntaniously reaching in the cabinet above the fridge and getting a bag of cat treats. But it turns out shaking it to call your pet over only worked in comercials.

And on cats who hadn't escaped through a bedroom window that was left partially open by accident when she went to work that morning.

Aparently mosquito net wasn't feline-proof. Go figure.

With a sigh Felicity plopped on the sofa and took her personal tablet off the coffee table. It only took a few moments to access the animal shelter webpage and mark her cat as missing.

Since Breadcrumb had a chip they would let her know if he was found and brought to them. But she decided to post a few flyers around the neighbourhood just in case.

"This is Lucky all over again." she muttered to hersef, remembering the Golden retriever she had as a child that ran away one evening while she was at her best friend's place.

It was never proven, but she always suspected her mother's boyfriend at the time intentionally left the front door open long enough for the dog, that hated him, escape. 

Lucky was never found.

And for years Felicity pushed aside the want to get another pet, out of that childhood fear that the next one would wanish too.

Until a siamese looking for a new home found a way into her heart by headbutting her hand when she reached out to pet him.

The tough-looking older feline was one of few cats remaining, still looking for a forever home, when she got to the pet adoption drive. The kittens were long gone by then.

Forgoing the dinner for a long shower and a good book she settled on her bed and imersed herself in the story until the sun went down and it became too dark to read without a light.

A ping coming from her tablet had her rush to read the message in hope it was from a shelter.

It wasn't.

It was from her boss who requested her presence at the office tomorrow, despite the fact it was her day off. Of course it could have been worse. He could have easity order her to return to the company tonight, it wouldn't be the first time. And she planed to spend her free time cleaning up her place a bit.

Instead she would probably spend it cleaning the servers cause some executive decided to stay a bit longer and access sites that should be blocked, but someone from the IT department made the accessable.

That would certainly explain some things.

It went against everything she believed in, but she couldn't help it, she dropped the tablet back on the table with more force than ever before. Luckily the screen didn't break, which would really ruin her day.

Looking at the clock she noticed it was already past nine, something that her empty stomack was aware of apparently, cause it started to grumble just moments later. Since she had to eat late, a fact she had no one to blame for but herself, Felicity chose to munch on a banana since that seemed like a better option than mac and cheese from a box.

An hour later she was already in bed.

An hour after that she was startled awake when Breadcrumb jumped on the windowsil and loudly announced that he was back. And hungry.

It wasn't until he was happily munching on cat food that she noticed he had something wrapped around him.

It turned out to be a string of some sort. Not a wire like on a guitar, or a fishing line. In fact Felicity was pretty certain she never saw something like that before.

Chosing to ignore the mystery for a full night of sleep she dropped it in the kitchen drawer that contained all sorts of knick-knacks and promptly returned to bed.

Breadcrumb joined her ten minutes later, once his belly was full, and nestled next to his human.

And in the morning Felicity wondered where the green grease stain on her comforter came from.

>>>>>\----------->

"What the frack?" Felicity mumbled after returning from work later than usual (thank you Mr. Vice President and your inability to comperhend you're not supposed to click on red flagged emails) and found Breadcrumb lounging on the windowsil. 

The cat's location wasn't what confused her, after all he enjoyed sunlight from that place before. It was what he was playing with.

The blonde watched godsmacked as the feline pawed the small arrow, Felicity didn't know what those were called, before he lifted his beautiful blue eyes towards his mistress and meowed.

He was showing her his catch.

Felicity reached for the arrow hesistantly, like she was afraid it would attack her. It was pretty obvious where it came from, well not exactlyfrom where, but from whom. Because that dark green color of the arrowhead and feathers is rather well known around Starling City.

She flinched and shook her hand after testing how sharp the tip was while repeating, "What the frack?"

Breadcrumb protested when she pushed him off the windowsil and opened the window. If someone happened to see her practically halfway out the window and looking around they would probably think she was insane.

She wasn't.

She just really didn't like to leave mysteries unsolved, and right now the mystery was where could Breadcrumb have got that arrow from. Glades wasn't the best of neighbourhoods, in fact her old one from Las Vegas seemed like Beverly Hills next to this area, so there were plently places a vigilante could utilitize as his base.

But there weren't any of those kind of places around her building. There was before, the old Queen Steel Mill certainly fit the bill, but it was since refurbished into a posh nightclub owned by resurected Oliver Queen and his partner in pretty much anything Thomas Merlyn.

From her research into cats, right after she adopted Breadcrumb and later after his fist excursion, she learned cats had a turf that could span from just one street to several blocks. Which meant her pet could have gotten the arrow from pretty much anywhere.

It was called a flachette, she learned later that night when her curiosity got the better of her. And according to the police report, their firewall needs an upgrade, the Hood was witnessed to throw them with extraordinary precision.

When Breadcrumb jumped in her bed that night Felicity let him worm in below her comforter, all the while making plans on how to get answers. 

She heard of a particular piece of tech that could help her with that.

>>>>>\----------->

The postman looked at the giddy blonde woman in confusion. He heard those cat ladies are a bit strange, but he never heard of one who bought, according to the tag on the box, a camera for her cat.

Could cats even use cameras?

He didn't ask, just watched as she rushed down the first floor hallway, before returning back to jamming letters into too small letterboxes installed in the building lobby.

Felicity was unaware she left the man perplexed as she pushed the door of her apartment open and called her cat's name.

Breadcrumb appeared a moment later from the direction of her bedroom. He was eager to get to his misstress thinking she was bringing him food.

She was actually bringing him something else.

He was bringing her something too.

"How did you got out this time? Seriously! I checked all windows before leaving for work this morning."

Breadcrumb meowed in response and plopped on his rear end in front of her, the proof of his excursion wrapped around his middle.

Felicity lifted the cat, who right away started to purr, and removed the scrap of cloth that was hanging off of him. And once it was in her hand she realized it wasn't just a random piece of green material.

It was a mask.

"You stole the Hood's mask. Breadcrumb you are going to get me in some serious trouble. I don't want to get penetrated by his arrow. Who is going to buy you tuna then?"

The feline just meowed and licked her nose.

Felicity let him go and then moved to the kichen to fill his food bowl and replace his water. And judging by the smell she also needed to clean his cat toilet.

Once that particular chore was done she grabbed leftovers from yesterday for dinner, plopped on the sofa, and went to open the package.

Of course she had to lift Breadcrumb and drop him on the floor, before she even managed to cut the tape, cause the cat decided her food was desert.

The camera was small, but larger than she expected. And not very high tech. 

It was already attached on the collar with a plastic clasp, so she only had to get it around Breadcrumb's neck before leaving tomorrow and hoping her cat would pull a Houdini again. She was probably the only person who hoped her cat would run away.

>>>>>\------------>

Blue eyes widened in shock at the image that appeared on her computer screen.

It started with the revalation Breadcrumb uses the uncovered ventilation shaft in her closet to escape, one she didn't even know existed, and then things got worse. Not only did the photos, that were automatically taken every 20 seconds, revealed the route  her cat took, but also the way he gained access to the vigilante's lair.

And the face of the man hidden under the green hood.

"Guess the old mill was a good hideout after all." she said staring at the photo of Oliver Queen dressed in the infamous leather suit, one that he filled out quite well. But that was beside the point. Next to him was a dark-skinned man that she recognized from few gossip rag photos she glanced at while in line at the store. He was the billionaire's bodyguard.

One that he obviously didn't need, judging by the fact he spent his nights scaling buildings and fighting heavily armed thugs protecting the corrupt onepercenters he was hunting.

Breadcrumb jumped on the desk beside the mouse and meowed.

Felicity looked at him and sighed. She wanted to know. She ordered the camera and attached it on her cat to get answers.

Well now she got them.

The question was what to do with them. Because while the thing that turned out to be a bowstring and a flachette seem like things that are easily replacable the mask might not be.

Same thing applies on the item that Breadcrumb had in his mouth when he returned home tonight.

Felicity had to test it, say the famous words, "You have failed this city." while wearing the voice manipulator and then she laughed cause she sounded positively ridiculous.

She would need to return it, it was as vital for the Hood's mission as his bow and quiver full of arrows. He needed it to remain unrecognized.

Felicity didn't agree with his methods, didn't liked the fact he killed anyone who got in his way, but she recognized positive results when she saw them.

Crime was down for the first time in over five years according to the statistics the police chief quoted durring a press conference last week. Though he claimed it was due increased police presence in the Glades. That part was a obvious lie since she hasn't seen a single patrolcar since the fire that almost destroyed Verdant before it was even oficially opened.

The Hood is the real reason why it was safe to walk to the nearest store after the sun goes down.

And because of that she couldn't just ignore everything, couldn't just pretend she didn't know and that her cat hasn't stolen from him.

She had to return his mask and voice modulator, which meant she had to approach him, let him know she knows his secret, and hope for the best.

>>>>>\------------>

It was stupid. Crazy. Suicidal. But Felicity felt like she didn't have another option.

She spent more time in a club in the past three days than she did since she turned old enough to actally get into one. She didn't get wasted and danced with handsty guys though, she was too preocupied with trying to catch a glimpse of Oliver Queen, but she didn't have much luck. The one time he appeared on the railing of the top floor, that was reserved for the VIPs, she failed to get him to notice her despite dressing up in her most form-fitting dress. Probably cause she was far from the only one with that particular goal, although for a completelly different reason than the rest of the girls, and he was known to prefere brunettes anyway.

So that plan was faulty from the beginning.

And that was why, on the forth night since she made the decision to return Breadcrumb's bounty, Felicity didn't go for the front door of the club but went around to where she learned was a back exit.

The door in front of her opened suddenly and Felicity froze in shock. She knew there was a possibility this would happen, but still... coming face to face with the vigilante in full garb was a frightening experience.

The criminals that faces him would agree with her, those who are still alive anyway.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice all garbled and unrecognizable.

Felicity perked up at the mechanically altered sound, "Oh, you have a spare. That's good, since you've been active in the past few days and your modulator was at my place."

An angry, "Excuse me?" came from the Hood's mouth, and he took a step towards Felicity, his hand instinctively tightening around the bow he was holding.

The move made Felicity scramble back in fear, words flying out of her lips faster than ever before, "I didn't steal it. My cat did. I know that excuse sounds as dumb as 'my dog ate my homework', which by the way happened once, but it's the truth. I swear. Breadcrumb is a genuine cat burglar. And somehow he got into your lair and took a liking to your things."

"My mask." the Hood growled.

Felicity nodded in confirmation before adding, "Also a flachette and a bowstring."

"Where are they?"

Felicity bit her tongue before she blabbed that he was a man of few words and reached in her bag. The man in green instantly tensed so she lifted one hand to show she was unarmed, and therefore not a threat, while she slowly took out the sandwich bag that contained the stolen items and handed it over.

The Hood grabbed it from her outstreched hand and turned to leave, but he didn't even make a single step before freezing and turning back towards her.

Like she knew what thought entered his mind she flinched and spoke, "You want to know how I found your base of operation. I... may have... attached a cat camera on Breadcrumb to see where he got all those items he stole and how he even got out from a locked apartment." she took a deep breath and then added. "I should probably admit right about now that I know who you are."

>>>>>\------------>

John Diggle looked up for a second towards the matal staircase before focusing again on the disassembled gun in front of him. Oliver was probably coming back cause his spare modulator was malfunctioning. He told him to get a new one after the one he always wore got misplaced.

It's not like he couldn't afford it.

He picked up the oily rag but dropped it a moment later and turned to stare at the stairs that led to the back alley.

It took him a moment to comperhand that he didn't hear it wrong. There really were two pairs of footsteps heard coming down to the lair.

And now the evidence stood in front of him.

Oliver, with his hood down and holding a bow in one hand and a sandwich bag containing some familiar items in the other, and next to him an unknown blonde woman who smiled at him briefly before continuing to look around in wonder.

And then her eyes landed on the computer they were using and Diggle had to use every speck of selfcontrol not to laugh at the look of pure horror that appeared on her face when she spotted their setup.

He heard her mutter, "Oh, you poor baby." and watched her rush towards it with her hands outstretched like she wanted to hug and comfort the machine.

It was obvious it's no use asking the blonde what she was doing there, she probably wouldn't even hear him over her own grumbling about outdated systems and Madonna, so he turned to his other source of information.

And found him staring at the woman with expression of amusement and something else, somehing he couldn't recognize, somehing he never saw on Oliver's face before. Not even when he was in company of Laurel Lance, the woman many claimed was the love of his life.

Oliver snapped out of his daze at the sound of his friend, and partner, clearing his throat pointendly. He could feel himself turning red after he finally focused on Diggle and found he man smirking at him.

Dig, being a good friend that he was, decided not to tease Oliver, yet anyway, and instead brought up the subject of the plastic bag in the archer's hand, "Are those the missplaced items? Where did you get them?"

The answer became intantly obvious and Diggle pointed at the woman. Oliver only nodded once in response.

"My cat stole them." Felicity explained, getting both men's attention, "He would run away every once in a while through an airduct and return with some bounty."

"Aha." Diggle mumbled.

"I'm not making that stuff up!" Felicity instantly defended herself, "I can prove it. I have the photos from the cat cam right here."

Oliver tenses as she waved her phone. She told him about the camera and photos outside, that was why he allowed her entrance in the lair, but he had no idea she way careless enough to carry evidence that he was the vigilante on her phone. In the Glades. At midnight. When no one was on the streets but him and criminals. And any of them could have attacked and robbed her, and then hand over the photos to the police as a 'get out of jail' card, or to just get him locked up so that he could no longer sabotage their blooming business of selling drugs and weapons to anyone with money.

"You carry photos that-"

"I'm not an amatur, Mr. Queen. I'm an IT specialist working in your family's company, and I'm very good at what I do. That includes encripting my phone so that it could not be hacked and protect it so that no one but me can access it's content. And I'm not talking about your off the mill fingerprint scanner or facial recognision. I'm talking about actual protection. Now-"

"What do you plan to do with them?" Oliver interupted her after realizing she was on a roll and wouldn't stop talking anytime soon.

"I'm obviously not going to take them to the police." Felicity said in a-matter-of-fact tone, "If I was going to do that I would have done it already, and you would already be sitting in jail, since not even your family fortune could get you reduced sentance for several counts of murder. I was going to delete them to show I am not a threat.. and then offer my services which are obviously needed."

"Excuse me?"

Diggle turned towards Oliver, after his friend asked the question, before turning back to the blonde. Today seemed like any other night with him being tactical support while his partner hunted criminals.

And then she appeared.

"Didn't you hear what I said previously? The whole rant about my phone being secure? Let me repeat myself, in a way you can understand." Oliver sent her a glare at the obvious insult, one that she ignored and continued speaking, "I'm good with computers. Great actually. And I'm offering to help you with your quest... or mission... or whatever you call it."

"How good exactly?" Diggle asked before Oliver could say anything.

"Why? Which agency do you need me to hack?" her response surprised him, and Felicity couldn't help but smile.

"Diggle." Oliver's tone held a warning tone, but his partner chose to ignore it. It was an opportunity they would be crazy to pass. His friend my not see the problem with going in blind in the shipping yard, a known Triad territory, but he did.

"We need access to satelite images. Starling shipping yard."

"How fast?" Felicity didn't even waited for a reply before taking a seat in front of the ancient computer and hoped she could actually access the Internet with it.

"Shipment of young girls is coming in tonight." the comment made Felicity stiffen and type faster, "Knowing which dock exactly could help catching them in the act."

Felicity paused, took something out of her purse, which hung on the back of the chair, and turned towards Oliver while lifting her hand to show she was holding a piece of blue nylon cloth with a clasp on both ends and a plastic square in the middle.

"Do you need a camera?" she asked eagerly, "It goes around the neck,but I could work something out. Probably."

Oliver just sighed while Diggle finally lost control and started to laugh.

He liked her. He hoped she would stick around.

>>>>>\------------>

She did.

>>>>>\------------>

Two years later Breadcrumb rushed to greet his mistress when she returned home, after a long day at running IT department, while her boyfriend watched from the kitchen to see her exact reaction once she notices her cat's newest bounty. 

Only this time he didn't steal it.

Oliver attached it to his collar himself.

It took Felicity a second to notice the diamond ring.

It took five minutes of coaxing and a can of tuna to get startled Breadcrumb out from beneath the sofa, where he hid after his human shrieked.

It took nine months to plan the wedding.

It took two years until they decided to start a family.

By the time Claire Queen was born Breadcrumb was already ten years old. But that didn't stop him from bringing his youngest human gifts... that he stole from somewhere.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on a tablet and honestly hope there aren't any typos cause this touchscreen typing is freaking hard.


End file.
